Neighbour dressed up as the apostle Matthew for the feet lavatorie and the procession of Christ on the Cross and Virgin Mary of Pace that will take place in the evening of moundry thursday in Villanueva de Tapia. with about 1,600 inhabitants, Villanueva de Tapia is a mainly agricultural village situated north between Granada's, Malaga's and Cordoba's province. One of the most charactaristic aspects of the Easter celebrations is how the neighbours dress and ware masks of Jesus apostles.
Nothing in Malaga equals the impressive display of the Easter celebrations. Thousands of people convey with the only mission to parade alongside the religious sculptures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus that have been entrusted to their brotherhoods. Year after year the locals show their devotion to the religious images dressing them up in sumptuous dressings and carrying them on the streets in costly decorated thrones loaded on the shoulders of “Nazarenos” (penitents). The first documents about Catholic processions in Malaga appear little after the conquest of the city by the Crown of Castilla and the following conversion to Christianity after overthrowing the Islamic authorities that predominated in the region during seven centuries. The implementation of the catholic religion and the arrival of new settlers from other catholic regions promoted the first processions to support the religious conversion of the general population. This kind of celebrations acquired more relevance after the Trento Council, celebrated between 1545 and 1563, bringing the Catholic Church to enforce the cult to the sacred figures in an attempt to fight against what they considered the heresy of Marin Luther's protestantism. A key factor that gave strength to this image cult was the fact that most of the population was illiterate. During the Baroque Age, new religious brotherhoods are created and receive a major boost with the inclusion of many local nobles in the organizations. At the time, the processions were composed of two main groups, one called “brothers of light” that were eight or ten members in charge of carrying on their shoulders the religious figure mounted on a throne, and the “brothers of blood” that were a comity of penitents that flagellated their bodies during the procession. The other main reason for the growth of the brotherhoods in the Baroque Age was the fact that the cemeteries were property of the church. (...)
Size: 2667px × 4000px
Location: Villanueva de Tapia, Málaga, España
Photo credit: © Xabier Mikel Laburu / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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